One of the most significant changes seen in recent years, relating to products having an impact on water-usage, is in the growing need to conserve water, especially in those areas or regions having high-density populations and/or drier climates. Accordingly, products associated with water-usage such as urinals, toilets, faucets, showers, bath tubs, spas, swimming pools, agriculture, gardening and irrigation-related products, and the like, have been given increased attention to see how improvements might be made to better conserve, and/or reduce unnecessary wasting of, water.
In recent years, one approach taken with urinals was the development, production and marketing of waterless urinals, which clearly had as their primary objective a significant reduction in water-usage. However, for many users, the ‘waterless’ approach has proved less than satisfactory, due in part to waterless urinals not being truly or completely self-cleaning and thus tending to accumulate unpleasant odors, that often linger in their vicinity. For example, a number of waterless urinals were marketed touting a maintenance-free self-cleaning aspect, wherein a urinal receptacle was made having a Teflon® or other water-repelling surface or coating, however it was found that even small amounts of urine retained on such surfaces and about the drains, or drain outlets of the urinals was enough to produce mildly to strongly unpleasant odors. If the urinals were installed in a facility where there were many urinals in one enclosed area, for example mounted side by side along a long wall of a large restroom, the odor problem was likely to be compounded proportionate to the number of urinals and their degree of use. Attempts have been made to overcome waterless urinal odor problems with various maintenance-related (not ‘maintenance-free’) approaches, each of which has corresponding, if not unanticipated, increased personnel and operational costs. For example, to address the problem of urine sticking to, or being retained on, one or more surface areas of a waterless urinal receptacle surface, maintenance personnel, and one or more cleaning solvents, had to be allocated to provide for regular maintenance-related cleanings. To address the problem of odor related to urine retained on and about the drains, or drain outlets of waterless urinals, various solvents, gels or solutions were proposed, sold and employed by staff newly delegated to waterless urinal maintenance tasks. Nonetheless, such attempted solutions have not always proven satisfactory. For example, it was reported in recent news articles, that some government facilities at the local and state level, having previously had waterless urinals installed, had odor related problems that proved so unsatisfactory the facilities had all the waterless urinals removed. Another limitation related to waterless urinals pertains to a military urinal construction standard which prohibits waterless urinals being connected to plumbing made of copper material due to problems with corrosion. As plumbing often includes copper components the waterless urinal was not an ideal option for military installations.
While the waterless urinal approach is effective in reducing water-usage, and has otherwise had some limited successes, for example when in installed in certain well-vented environments, it has not proven to be a likely candidate for wide adoption, or for replacement or retrofitting of urinals installed in facilities that do use water and are already equipped with drainage to standard sewer lines.
With such problems hindering widespread acceptance, and use, it is questionable as to whether the waterless urinal approach will in the end account for much in the total reduction of urinal water-usage.
In a more conventional approach, the standard reduced water-usage urinals, such as the types already employed in many commercial, government, military, institutional and public facilities are not ideal either, in that a multitude of them operate at an older ‘low-flush’ standard of one gallon per flush (‘1 gpf’). Similarly many toilets, even those equipped with a reduced water-volume urine flush-cycle operate in a comparable range using far more water per flush than is necessary.
The high water-usage problem associated with the toilet usage is multiplied by another factor that is not likely to change quickly under status-quo construction practices. This is to a significant degree due to a utilitarian design approach taken with many, if not most, restrooms or bathrooms, wherein, once built, there is little additional space left to accommodate the adding of a typically configured urinal. For example, in addition to the room occupied by a relatively high water-usage toilet, customary cabinetry, for example including a sink with a faucet or two and one or more doors or drawers, will be installed with perhaps a bathtub or shower stall in the same room, often with minimal maneuvering space being left between such fixtures. Consequently, in a majority of bathrooms, the toilet, whether equipped with a lower water-usage urine flush-cycle or not, remains the typical means for the capturing and dispensing of liquid waste. Some people practice a type of makeshift water-conservation by employing a standard toilet and not flushing between urination-only use-cycles, however after only a few urine-accumulating cycles a strong unpleasant odor can easily be generated. More often existing restrooms have older model toilets installed having no better than a 3 to 5 gallon per flush rate.
In contrast, the present invention provides a relative aligning between a positionable urinal receptacle and/or very low water-usage mist-dispensing (or emitter) configurable to flush, for example, 13 to 20 use-cycles for every gallon of water used, with each use-cycle facilitating an odor-controlling self-cleaning of the urinal. Accordingly, a user employing a urinal, or retrofittable urinal, of the present invention could yield 60+ use-cycles for every time a typical 4-5 gallon toilet in his home might otherwise be used and flushed just once. While it is understandable that toilets are necessary for handling non-liquid waste in addition to liquid waste and consequently require more water when doing so, it can be seen that the toilet-only approach in homes, offices and public places, and the long-standing practice of building so many bathrooms and restrooms having only toilets, are among the biggest factors preventing a substantial, and otherwise easily obtainable reduction in water-usage.
Moreover, as almost anyone can attest, the ubiquitous toilet-only fixture does not come equipped to provide a self-cleaning, or clean-while-in-use feature. Whether installed in homes or in public venues they require their respective residents, or paid professionals, to do regular toilet cleanings with the added cost of cleaning related products.
Another problem is that of aesthetics, wherein it might be considered reasonable to ask, “How come a urinal has to be seen?” Although some attempts made in prior art approaches were aimed at concealing a urinal that could be partially or fully hidden between use-cycles, little to no water and energy savings was achieved over typical urinal configurations, due to the prior art incorporating a standard, or fairly typical, water-flushing means. In contrast, the concealable and revealable urinals of the present invention are configured with very low water-usage mist-dispensing or emitter means relatively alignable with a fully concealable urinal receptacle, to provide for example, 13 to 20 flush cycles, or use-cycles, for each gallon of water used.
It is noted that improved means for significantly or substantially reducing water-usage can also accrue significant savings in energy-usage, as a common method of distributing water often entails the use of energy-consuming water pumps. Accordingly, substantial decreases in water usage can mean significant reductions in energy use. Thus, an incorporating of the urinal of the present invention, depending on the components employed in its mist-dispensing or emitter means, can save for example 90-95% of the water-pumping energy consumed by a standard one-gallon per flush urinal. Accordingly, a substantial improvement in reduced water and energy consumption is provided by the present invention versus prior art approaches.
Another important factor, often largely unaddressed, is the impact on the environment from too much demand for water, or from entirely depleting certain water resources. Such practices have taken, and continue to take a toll on natural habitat and wildlife, in some cases causing: collapsed aquifers; loss of habitat; substantial dust particulate production from water being diverted (to the detriment of one environment) to meet the demand of people in another environment; substantial increases in water bills for residences, businesses and farms; and so on. There are some projections now being made that water resources may become one of the most fought-over resources in the near future. Even the flushing of too much wastewater, including wastewater into septic systems is a real concern. For example, material published by the Environmental Protection Agency entitled “A Homeowner's Guide to Septic Systems” states: “With one-fourth of U.S. homes using septic systems, more than 4 billion gallons of wastewater per day is dispersed below the ground's surface. Inadequately treated sewage from septic systems can be a cause of ground-water contamination. It poses a significant threat to drinking water and human health because it can contaminate drinking water wells and cause diseases and infections in people and animals. Improperly treated sewage that contaminates nearby surface waters also increases the chance of swimmers contracting a variety of infectious diseases. These range from eye and ear infections to acute gastrointestinal illness and diseases like hepatitis.” And, “Average indoor water use in the typical single-family home is almost 70 gallons per person per day. Leaky toilets can waste as much as 200 gallons each day. The more water a household conserves, the less water enters the septic system. Efficient water use can improve the operation of the septic system and reduce the risk of failure. And lastly, “Toilet use accounts for 25 to 30 percent of household water use . . . . Most older homes have toilets with 3.5 to 5-gallon reservoirs, while newer high-efficiency toilets use 1.6 gallons of water or less per flush.”
As the prior art space-saving concealable and revealable urinal approaches have not adequately addressed the need to substantially reduce water usage and wastewater, and substantial improvement is quite feasible, it would be advantageous to provide the alternative of the present invention's space-saving, very low water-usage, positionable urinals, configured to facilitate self-cleaning. As the urinal embodiments of the present invention are designed installable or retrofittable within a wall of a room, or customary cabinetry of a room (i.e., cabinetry providing one or more customary cabinet functionalities) without adding, or encroaching into, the space of a room, almost any existing bathroom (or room or wall near a drain or sewer pipe) can be equipped or retrofitted with a concealable urinal configured to reduce water-usage by an order of magnitude.
Other efforts have been made to incorporate a urinal functionality into a restroom in a space-saving manner, for example, by making a toilet, urinal, or urine capturing plate of a urinal, positionable from a wall recess, or by making an installable urinal-specific cabinet which can be added onto and extend outwardly from a wall encroaching into a room. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,321, Brunton discloses a urinal made to be installed within a wall recess having a vertically-arranged side opening, wherein the urinal is concealable behind hinged doors in the recess, but is otherwise “flushed by a conventional water supply” dispensed from fixed plumbing mounted internally within the wall recess. As the Brunton urinal is also mounted in a fixed position within the wall recess it can be seen that neither the urinal nor water-dispensing means are positionable. A pivotal flip guard is provided to rotate outwardly wherein a “forward edge surface projects beyond the boundary of said receptacle through the open front thereof” but less than a few inches, meaning a user's face would correspondingly be only a few inches from the wall, which would not provide an ergonomically comfortable distancing or typical user experience. This can be seen in the subsequent Preferred Embodiments of the Present Invention section of this specification wherein a description in reference to the FIG. 8 “Prior Art” drawing, contrasts a user's position, and ergonomics, from a wall when employing Brunton's fixed higher-than-deep urinal opening and nominally-extending drip guard plate (shown proportionately scaled to fit within a standard stud depth) against a positionable deeper-than-high urinal-receptacle embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. Accordingly, in addition to the Brunton invention not having means for substantially reducing urinal related water-usage, it can be seen that user comfort and ergonomics could be much less appealing due to a vertically-aligned urinal opening (flush with a wall) approach which determines a close proximity of the user to the wall opening. In contrast, the present invention provides space-saving positionable urinals equipped with very low water-usage mist-dispensing means wherein a majority portion of a generally upward-facing opening of the receptacle is ergonomically extended out from a wall having an ergonomically improved accessibility providing a familiar distancing and customary urinal experience.
In another approach, U.S. Pat. No. 2,076,950 describes a manually positionable, ‘Disappearing Toilet’ (not a urinal), however Koch does not show a toilet or urinal equipped to provide flushing in a substantially reduced water-usage manner.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,068 issued to one of the applicants of the present invention, a urinal is described having a single fixed mister located centrally above a urinal receptacle with the entire urinal configured mountable in a stationary manner extending outwardly from an exterior wall surface. Accordingly, the embodiments of the issued patent are not ideal for installation or retrofitting in many bathrooms designed to be economical in space, and the positionable urinal embodiments of the present invention, installable within an interior volume of existing customary cabinetry or a wall of such rooms, would provide a significantly improved water-use reducing alternative. As any embodiment of the issued urinal patent is mounted in a fixed manner, and is not configured with very low water-usage mist-dispensing means separately positionable between reduced-profile and extended-profile states, or positionable in concert with a urinal at a fixed height, a urinal positionable between a concealed, zero-footprint state (within an interior volume of customary cabinetry or a wall) and an extended-for-use state is not provided. Thus it would be advantageous to additionally provide urinals that are concealable and revealable, and equipped to provide relative alignment between a positionable urinal receptacle and very low water-usage mist-dispensing means (whether fixed in height or made separately positionable) to collectively provide a distributed mist spray volume which facilitates urinal self-cleaning and use in a water, energy and space saving manner, and it is among the objects of the present invention to provide such improved solutions.
In U.S. patent application 2006/0168718 (abandoned) by Watson et al, the application describes a urinal-specific enclosure mountable on a wall to conceal or provide, via doors, access to either a wall-mounted urinal, or a portable urinal, wherein the latter must be entirely removed from the enclosure for use. While a concealable urinal is described (having no water supply or flushing means), the enclosure is merely added onto a wall of a room and thereby necessarily extends into, or encroaches on, the space of the room. Thus, the application has no means for reducing the water-usage of water-flushed urinals, and no space-saving aspects of its concealable urinals.
None of the prior art approaches have incorporated, anticipated or proposed a space-saving solution that also addresses the growing demand to significantly or substantially reduce water-usage or the unnecessary wasting of water. More particularly, none of the prior art have incorporated the present invention's very low water-usage mist-dispensing means, positionable in concert with, or positionable into alignment with, a urinal-receptacle surface of a positionable concealable and revealable urinal configured to provide a distributed misted spray volume positionably aligned to prevent retention of waste liquid on, and provide a self-cleaning of, the urinal-receptacle surface in very low water usage manner (e.g., saving water 90% or more versus a standard low-water 1 gallon per flush urinal).
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to address the shortcomings of Brunton, Koch and Watson et al, and deficiencies of other prior art approaches, by applying the present invention's space-saving, positionable urinal improvements and embodiments mentioned above and those described in the sections to follow, thus it is among the objects of the present invention to provide such improvements and embodiments.